Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Bizarro is, like, brought to you or whatever by, like, the Awesome Key.

Someone bought a color poster of this cartoon off of my Cafe Press site and I was reminded of how much I like it. Several times each week I am alarmed at how many adults, usually women, talk like goofy teenagers. I think women do it more because they can get away with "cute," childlike behavior in the workplace (because there are men who find it endearing) much longer than men can.

Anyway, I like this old cartoon and I can't stand people who talk in that clipped, post-Valley-Girl accent and fear that one day there will be 50-year-old judges who talk like that.

And now an advert: you get lots of my images on, like, a gazillion different products or whatever at Cafe Press here. It's not like I make any money from it, but I thought you might think it was awesome.

11 comments:

I was putting together a blog post a week ago, while trying (unsuccessfully) to ignore a nearby conversation. The gabby guy was beyond irritating... but when he made the comment, "Like, so her parents are, like, really into Grateful Dead, but, like, she's, like, really into Grateful Dead. So, like, I was, like, 'Dude! Like!'" I couldn't help myself: I cracked up, and transcribed it into the post as an aside.

hey dan -not exactly sure why, but yer plug for cafe press reminded me that i never got my cards from the last coupla contests. aaaaaaaahhh! did they get lost in the mail? i won 2… maybe 3 times. i will diligently stand by my mail box till they arrive.thank you, sir.

Complete agreement here. Not only is the phrasing annoying, but the strident cutesy voice many adult women use sends chills up my spine. I wonder if they realize the way they speak is one of the primary reasons they aren't taken seriously. You don't hear Clinton talking like a teenager from Santa Ana, do you?

As a linguist I'll just say that language is constantly changing, much to the chagrin of many people (!) And, for a number of reasons, women tend to be at the forefront of language change. Like, yeah. So there.

This is one of my favorites. I think I photocopied it out of one of the Bizarro books (are there ever going to be new collections? or has the interwebs killed the cartoon-book market?) and stuck it to the wall at work.

I've heard studies on the subject of women using add-on or more "fluffy" words because it is passive and they were taught to speak that way. Also, women are more likely to do well in the workplace if they are passive--unlike men, who are more likely to get promoted if they are a "go-getter." Just sayin'!